I was going through an older scrap book of items I wanted to save for posterity, all from pre-internet days.  I found a letter of recommendation from a former gunsmith of Cody, the late Eb Tarr. Eb was the owner of Cody Trading Company, Inc. for many years until his untimely death.  He invented and patented the Wyoming Split Sling.

Following is just part of the letter dated February 20, 1991, the remainder of the letter is of a more private nature so was not included:

“It was really a pleasant surprise when I got my first look at Randy’s shop and his vast amount of equipment.  He had an extensive amount of dies, reamers, bullet molds, power tools, bench grinders, drills, gunsmthing tools, etc, including an extensive library of technical data.  In fact, I don’t think that I have ever seen a better collection of gunsmithing tools and equipment in any shop I have ever visited, or in fact, owned.

Some of Randy’s reamers and special tools I have never seen before and he told me that much of what he’d acquired had been given to him from his Grandfather before his death and he had inherited the remainder upon his [Grandfather’s] death.

Some of the special jigs and gun working fixtures he said he had designed and built himself as there were none on the market in the caliber he wanted.

The amount of time, material and expertise that is necessary to accomplish this is tremendous.

Randy probably has a life time of work in the special tools and equipment in his shop.  Many of his tools are one of a kind, and to duplicate would have to be special made by a master gunsmith.”

Below, I created a copy of his letterhead, and did some editing to include his name and signature. I blocked out the last four numbers on phone and fax as they are no longer associated with him or his shop.